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‘Bankrupting the Third World’ questions whether Third World aid isn’t actually giving, but taking

Western nations are extremely generous in assisting the development of the Third World, and they are never shy of giving vast sums to poorer nations in times of need. But what if much of this aid is not charitable, but selfish? What if it isn’t actually giving, but taking? What if most of the generosity has serious strings attached – strings designed to fleece vulnerable nations? We ask these questions, and more, in our new release book BANKRUPTING THE THIRD WORLD: How the Global Elite Drown Poor Nations in a Sea of Debt.

Africa’s poor…drowning in a sea of debt.

The following excerpt from Bankrupting the Third World examines the motives behind the “generosity” extended to Third World nations:

Few would argue that Third World countries get a raw deal. To highlight just one industry on one continent, blockbuster movies like the Leonardo DiCaprio-headlined ‘Blood Diamond’ have spotlighted the corruption that flourishes in Africa’s multi-trillion dollar diamond industry.

However, we are aware that to suggest the likes of the IMF and the World Bank are scams designed to subjugate Third World countries may sound ridiculous. Right? Well, do the research and you’ll find, as we did, that many globalization commentators concur the suggestion is not remotely ridiculous…

Our alternative version of international aid suggests that money given or loaned by international organizations like the IMF and the World Bank is no different to banks dolling out credit cards to individual customers. And just as banks offer credit to customers so that they (the banks) can make money, this theory also suggests these big, so-called aid organizations are purely profit-motivated and not remotely charitable.

Let’s explore this comparison a little deeper…

Banks know that some customers will pay off their credit cards quickly without incurring much interest. They also know a small percentage will have to be written off as bad debts, and they allow for this in their profit forecasts.

However, the vast majority of customers who take on new credit cards will be indebted to the bank for months, years or even for the rest of their lives. Some of these customers will manage, barely, while some will be completely snowed under and one step away from bankruptcy.

Banks make the bulk of their profits by keeping most of their customers in this perpetual cycle of paying off interest, and that’s why they regularly offer customers more credit – even, or especially, customers who are already having trouble getting themselves out of the debt cycle and who can least afford it.

Following this analogy, on the international stage the World Bank, the IMF and First World governments are the equivalent of smaller, personal banks, and impoverished Third World nations are the equivalent of customers accepting and using credit cards.

Overall, the rules are virtually identical: foster a reliance on credit amongst those you lend to then ensure the interest rates are so extreme the debt can never be paid off.

Once impoverished Third World nations are beholden to lenders, First World governments and their allied corporations regularly demand favors in return. Those favors include relinquishing political control or simply turning a blind eye to the plunder of natural resources, or both.

Manipulating the power structure of countries is done in a multitude of ways, including rigging elections, making under-the-table payments and organizing political assassinations.

When these nations are crushed, enslaved even, beneath mountains of debt, this creates enormous ongoing revenues for the lenders through high interest rates. It also allows for untold injustices to be perpetrated by major multinational corporations – injustices such as oil companies pumping toxins into rivers, logging companies destroying entire forests, pharmaceutical giants performing illegal human experimentation, manufacturers hiring people to work in inhumane conditions in sweat shops, and in some cases employing child labor.